Nintendo Download: 30th August 2010 (North America)

After a short delay the Nintendo Download is available, and sadly brings with it no surprises, meaning August ends with more of a whimper than a bang.

WiiWare

Tales of Elastic Boy: Mission 1 (600pts, Lexis Numerique) – A platformer from the creators of the PooYoos games, this was released in Europe last week, so our review will be available very soon.

DSiWare

Music On: Learning Piano (200pts, Abylight) – The third in the Music On series following Electronic Keyboard and Retro Keyboard, this new instalment takes a different approaching, attempting to teach the fundamentals of reading sheet music through fifteen classical pieces. We'll soon find out if this is worth a standing ovation or is simply A Musical Joke.

Cosmos X2 (500pts, Saturnine Games) – An old-school side-scrolling shoot 'em up, Cosmos X2 could plug a big gap in the DSiWare line-up. With a range of weapons upgrades and separate energy bars for each weapon on offer, you can be sure our upcoming review will shoot from the hip.

myNotebook: Pearl (500pts, Nnooo) – The second colour of Nnooo's improved personal jotter series, Pearl is slightly more pearlescent than the previous release, but still features the same increased page count, clock and battery meter as its carbon cousin. You can read our myNotebook: Carbon, Pearl and Tan review to see what we thought.

The Nintendo press release is here to get you all fired up, supposedly.

NINTENDO DOWNLOAD: GET FIRED UP FOR FALL WITH ALIEN BATTLES, COLORFUL DOODLES AND MUSICAL GREATS

August 30, 2010

Newly available on the WiiWare™ service, Tales of Elastic Boy – Mission 1 truly stretches the possibilities for console adventure. On the Nintendo DSiWare™ service, you'll discover epic space battles in Cosmos X2, create customized notes with myNotebook: Pearl™, and learn to play timeless melodies with Music on: Learning Piano. Whether you're headed back to school or simply flipping another calendar page, these new offerings will help freshen up your gaming regimen as you head into fall.

WiiWare

Tales of Elastic Boy – Mission 1Publisher: Lexis NumeriquePlayers: 1-2ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic MischiefPrice: 600 Wii Points™Description: Tales of Elastic Boy offers a totally innovative and unique style of game play that takes full advantage of the Wii Remote™ controller. To fulfill your quest and save your planet, you'll have to travel through many lands, defeat various enemies, meet unexpected friends and solve tricky puzzles. Play in single-player mode or with your friends and discover funny games. Use your stretching arms to swing and punch, roll as fast as you can or jump onto your enemies. Based on a powerful physics engine, Tales of Elastic Boy offers a truly original and entertaining gaming experience that's easy to learn but challenging to master.

Nintendo DSiWare

Cosmos X2Publisher: Saturnine GamesPlayers: 1ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy ViolencePrice: 500 Nintendo DSi Points™Description: Pilot the Cosmos X2 to defend your planet against an alien invasion. Battle your way through the solar system to the alien home world to defeat their army. Equip your ship with two weapons of your choice and switch between them at any time during battle. Your active weapon takes damage when your ship gets hit. Defeating enemies regenerates energy in your inactive weapon. The key to your survival lies in finding a balance in your weapon usage. Battle your way through six levels of action and test your skills with three difficulty levels. Three bonus modes provide additional challenges.

myNotebook: PearlPublisher: NnoooPlayers: 1Price: 500 Nintendo DSi PointsDescription: myNotebook allows you to take notes wherever you go. Just pop open your Nintendo DSi system and jot down your thoughts. Make a list and cross it off, or play your favorite pen-and-paper games (games not included). You can even personalize your notebook by drawing on the cover and changing the paper type with 24 different unlockable paper styles. Use the pen or pencil to make your notes or doodles and then erase the bits you don't like. With five ink colors, you'll always be able to make your notes and doodles look stylish. myNotebook also includes 128 pages to write on and the ability to export your pages to your Nintendo DSi Photo Album.

Music on: Learning PianoPublisher: AbylightPlayers: 1ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)Price: 200 Nintendo DSi PointsDescription: An entire orchestra follows your performance of 15 great classics. By playing each day, your ability may increase. Earn the bronze, silver and gold medals for each song, completing each different level. A simplified music score is shown on the upper screen and a full piano keyboard appears on the touch screen, guiding beginners note by note on their first steps. Learn works by famous composers including Beethoven, Pachelbel, Bach, Strauss and Verdi.

This has been the driest week of releases we had this year. Nintendo should think about the C64 games out in Europe already and the upcoming Neo Geo games Fatal Fury 3 and Samurai Shodown III, as well as having Super Hang-On as a Virtual Console Arcade game during the holiday season.

It sucks this week because Metroid is out this week. It's a shame we can't at least get one of the few unreleased good wiiware games. What about that one that came in Japan with the cowboy that looked like Super Mario?

Of course I've expected no VC by now. I can't believe how much we complained after 4 years about a VC drought. First it was fruitful, then we only got one or two a week and people got worried, then people complained for awhile that we only got 1 game a week and thought it couldn't get worse, but then we finally got our first no VC week, and everyone went into a fullblown panic. Now we are lucky to get a VC release once every three months. Hey, at least we got Ufouria.

@Tasuki: I would like to point out that Nintendo didn't say that, Victor Ireland did. he's the one responsible for the Sunsoft games on VC, in case you didn't know. I only WISH Nintendo would give us enough info about VC sales to say "you guys should buy more."

@TasukiOy. What he said was that if you buy it, it would make future releases more likely. What is wrong with that? It's common sense. The only way any publisher is going to truly know what's worth releasing is by the sales numbers, not by listening to all of us whine on the interwebs. Fact is, if stuff doesn't sell, why the heck would they keep putting stuff out?

And more generally, i hope everyone relaizes that there's a significant drought on releases this week because Other M is out tomorrow.

Lack of Mega Man V = Instant fail and will continue to do so until the situation. My lack of whooping up on Gravity Man and Star Man is directly proportional the amount of incompetance at Nintendo. There is NO REASON why we shouldn't have all the NES and SNES Mega Mans by now other than Nintendo's lazyness and incompetance. Heads need to roll, management needs to be replaced, and several other changes need to occur immediately to get the VC back on track.